Seeing The Elephant

Dominic Vautier
9/17/18

John Jacob Astor was rich; in fact he was filthy rich, having in excess of perhaps 110 billion dollars in today’s money (Stark, 203).  More important, he personally controlled the wealth of about one percent of the entire GDP of the country and that was a lot of controlling, something that is unimaginable in today’s world because this kind of wealth can move cities.

Aster’s plan was to build a world wide fir trading company, the Northwest Company (NWC), centered largely in the  Oregon territory with connections throughout the world; London, New York, Canton, Hawaii and he had the resources and ships to do it.  He failed--for a number of reasons, primarily because of the War of 1812 and a whole host of bad luck.  He lost interest in the project and went on to make money in real estate and other enterprises. Today all that remains of his great plans and empire is a fishing town on the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon (Stark, 295).  Had Aster’s great plans succeeded and he had been able to set up his fir trading company and driven out the competing Hudson’s Bay Company and establishing and maintaining trading posts all along the west coast from Oregon to Alaska as he had meticulously planned, would things have been different? (Stark, 294) Perhaps, you might say.  Perhaps not.  Subsequent events strongly suggest perhaps.

Much had in fact been accomplished by the otherwise futile efforts of NWC, things that had immense significance on the future of the pacific coast and the future generations that migrated there.  Aster equipped and heavily financed the famous and well known Overland Party, well known at least until 1835 and later, more so than Lewis and Clark which relied mostly on glamour and legend.  The Overland Party set out in 1811 to find the best way to Oregon from St. Louis.  It’s disastrous and painful journey west was one of starvation, almost unbearable exposure to the elements, Indian captures and re-captures, stolen guns and supplies, and long periods of isolation and loneliness (Stark, 196).  The return trip back to Missouri was even worse (Stark, 197).  The Overland Party led by the fearless Robert Stewart staggered and stumbled and bumbled around the as yet unchartered Rockies, making wrong turns, running into dead ends and box canyons, and suffering more unbelievable privations.  Finally on October 22, 1812, Stewart and his group discovered South Pass on the continental divide, “Uncle Sam’s Backbone”.  Although the pass had been known to the Indians for many hundreds of years, it represented the only way to get wheeled vehicles east or west.  Basically Aster’s Overland Party had stumbled upon the great Oregon Trail.

It had been just five years before the Overland Party started on its fateful journey, 1804, that Thomas Jefferson had commissioned Lewis and Clark to explore not just the newly acquired lands of Louisiana but to seek out and describe territories further west.  His interest was greatly influenced by the reports of Alexander Mackenzie who had written that anyone who eventually occupied that area would exercise very strong trade advantage over almost all other nations (Stark, 15).

In any discussion of the Overland Party it seems necessary to include the exploits of John Day, a trapper from Virginia who joined NWC in 1810 (Stark, 25). Day was with the Party on its ill-fated westward journey and suffered unbelievable hardships at the hands of Indians and the elements, actually surviving and eventually making his way to Astoria. When assigned to join the eastbound Overland Party he went mad and attempted suicide (Stark, 247).  He was returned to Astoria under guard.  John Day remains a figure of legend with rivers, a damn, towns, and many roads named in his honor.

One English phrase appeared in our lexicon during the 1800s, and perhaps earlier, which completely changed meanings several times during that century and then the phrase--just simply disappeared.  When circuses began visiting larger towns on the east coast in the early 1800s there were no railroads yet. Instead long trains of big Conestoga wagons came lumbering into town pulled by teams of struggling oxen carrying its usual assortments of gigantic tents, jugglers, acrobats, high wire and trapeze artists, midgets, caged lions and the usual sleek plumed horses.  Then came the elephants.  Wide eye kids anxiously watched it all and when the circus parade marched down Main Street, every eye was glued on the event, especially the elephants with their big floppy ears and huge trunks.  “Did you see the elephant?”

Some historians (McCrum, 252) say the expression came from the story of a farmer making his way to market who met a circus train going the other way.  His horse got spooked by an elephant, bolted, overturned the cart and ran away.  The discouraged farmer returned home and, when asked about what happened he replied, "I saw the elephant".

“Seeing the elephant” was to experience something transcendental, magic, transformational and extremely unforgettable (Buck, 19).  It was the accomplishment of a great and difficult adventure, an odyssey, a life-shaping event.  The meaning soon evolved to represent craziness, foolhardiness, recklessness, carelessness.  As soon as interest picked up in doing the Oregon Trail, the expression applied to this venture because it was extremely hazardous, and conjured up pictures of disease, drowning, constant Indian attacks, accidents, starvation, destitution and death.

As America was thrown into its great civil war the expression then came to mean “Have you met the enemy?  Have you experienced the trauma of mangled corpses, and wreathing wounded men, screaming in pain and suffering?  Have you seen lines of men mowed down like so much standing corn before the plow?  Have you been put through long dusty forced marches only to die of exhaustion and thirst? Have you participated in face to face death struggles against tens of thousands or your own brothers?  Have you seen the elephant?

The Oregon Trail starts from St. Joseph or Independence Missouri and ends at Oregon City.  It was a rut filled, river crossed, parching, burning, freezing 2100 mile long path (or multiple paths) where pioneers got lost, starved to death, were killed by accidents or sometimes Indians, and often succumbed to cholera or any one of hundreds other diseases. Most of the deaths were through accidents.  The bureau of land management (BLM) estimates that 10 percent of all pioneers perished based on graves and personal accounts.  Only a few died by Indians.  The optimum wagon train size was probably 30 wagons.  A smaller number may not have the depth to overcome difficulties whereas a larger group may not be able to stay together or travel as fast.  Some wagon trains numbered over 100.  From 1840 to 1860 more that 400,000 people took the trail in 60,000 wagons which the average occupancy per wagon being 6.6 people, suggesting that entire families made the journey (Buck, 65).  This does not count all the pigs, cows, horses, mules, oxen, chickens and goats, coffee and kitchenware they brought.

The first overland trip with wagons was done by the Bonneville Expedition under orders of the U. S. Army. He traveled with heavy wagons and stopped in western Wyoming, but got over South Pass.  The first complete trip was the Whitman-Spalding expedition in 1836 (Buck, 100).  The first complete wagon train was the Gantt-Whitman train of 1843.  After that thousands of wagons and families suddenly saw a great opportunity.  They saw the elephant.

The trip usually took six months. 12 miles in a day was a good day’s travel.  Well bread mules could move at 4 mph and oxen at 3 mph.  Mules were the animal of choice although easily spooked.  Horses were not suitable for wagons, but better suited for scouting and hunting.

In the early days America did not have much in the way of wagons except for the gigantic Conestoga monsters that were mostly used for transporting large quantities of produce from western Pennsylvania to the coast.  There were also the flimsy lightweight coaches used for transporting rich people around cobblestone roads.  A new rugged form of farm wagon was invented for long haul over very difficult terrain.  The Schuttler wagon was an archetype.  Many prairie wagons were Schuttlers but wagons were built by Studebaker and others as well.  These sturdy farm wagons were basically boxes mounted on undercarriages.  There was no suspension except for the seat. Because the box was not attached, axles did not break as easily.  Generally the boxes measured 10 to 12 feet long, 3 feet wide and three feet deep. The undercarriages consisted of two sets of axles.  The front wheels were around 3 feet in diameter and the back were 4 feet.  The wheel skein was 3 inches. Vendors often advertised that these wagon boxes could actually float over rivers, thus the moniker “prairie schooner”.  A typical wagon could be pulled by three mules abreast or four mules in train.  Some wagons had two wheeled trailers called "trail pups".

Jumping off sites were a number of towns along the western Missouri border, such as St. Joseph or Kansas City.  The trip along the prairies of Kansas to the blue river was a shakedown where mule and oxen teams were tested, and unnecessary supplies were jettisoned.  Then came the long road to Fort Kearny, Plum Creek, and the dreadful California Hill.  There were many routes along the Plate River because it wandered from year to year depending on rainfall but getting through Nebraska and past Chimney Rock was a milestone.

On they pushed into the seemingly endless mountains of southern Wyoming; Fort. Laramie, Casper, Independence Rock, Devil’s Gate, Split Rock and finally through South Pass.  After “Uncle Sam’s Backbone”, some pioneers split off and headed for California, but most went to Oregon (before the 1849 gold rush, that is).  These people preferred the rich soil, cooler climates that they were used to, better growing seasons, abundant water and rich forests (Borneman, Rival Rails, 263).  California seemed very hostile and barren to many pioneers at that time.

The trip from South Pass to Oregon was no less difficult.  On and on they pushed and struggled. There was Dempsey Ridge and the Big Sandy and many other obstacles before getting to the Snake River which was also a huge obstacle.  Following the river was easier and after the Three Mile Crossing things went well until Vale, Oregon where the passage got narrow and still yet there was only one way through the Blue Mountains which often was mud swollen.  Coming down into Pendleton was not too rough but at The Dalles there was no way to get past the Celilo (se-LY-lo) Falls unless the wagons went around Mount Hood or were tied to rafts and floated the rapids.  As many as half of all the wagons that left Missouri never really arrived in Oregon City as wagons but were probably broken up and rebuilt into boats, rafts and furniture (Buck, 384).

In the spring of 1845 there were 2500 pioneers waiting to travel to Oregon at various jumping off points (Buck, 112). In that same year well over 5000 Americans lived and farmed in the Willamette Valley alone. By 1849 there was twice that number.  Few Canadians lived in the area generally north of the Columbia River and only a handful managed the trading forts.  Vancouver, British Columbia on the Burrard Inlet was not to be founded until 1886, 40 years later.  By the time the treaty of 1846 was signed giving the disputed land of Cascadia to America, nothing else would have been satisfactory because Americans by that time had overwhelmingly occupied the land and they planned to keep it.  In fact it is not so unreasonable to suggest that the entire west coast from San Diego to Juneau could have come under the control of the United States.  John Jacob Astor’s vision very well may have come true.

Ol' Hickory's Boy